National divide

Few countries worship their sports heroes more devoutly than tiny Nicaragua.

When former Montreal Expos pitcher Dennis Martinez returned home for the first time after throwing a perfect game against the Dodgers, a national holiday was declared, the country’s main baseball stadium was renamed in his honor and a campaign was launched to elect him president.

But should three-time boxing world champion Ricardo Mayorga prove brave enough to return home after Friday’s fight with Fernando Vargas at Staples Center, the only ones likely to be waiting for him will be police officers. That’s because Mayorga faces charges in two civil trials in Nicaragua, only the latest in a long line of legal problems and boorish outbursts that have made the bad-boy boxer something of a pariah among many of the people who should be cheering him loudest.

“His conduct, the way he expresses himself in press conferences, the accusations against him, have created a negative atmosphere for him,” said Edgard Rodriguez, sports editor of La Prensa, the country’s most influential newspaper. “Here it’s easier to find people opposed than in favor of him.”

The same holds true in Southern California, home to the largest U.S. concentration of Nicaraguans outside Miami-Dade County, Fla.

“I don’t think he’s wanted . . . by us,” said Erick Lopezsalas, a licensed personal financial consultant with Washington Mutual and a Nicaragua expatriate. “[He] embarrasses us and everyone starts talking bad about us.”

Armando Orue, who runs a company that ships parcels to Nicaragua, agrees.

“I have many Nicaraguan clients, and the opinion of most of them is the people feel ashamed because he makes the Nicas look like we’re vulgar. And we’re not,” Orue said, days before Mayorga opened a session with the media by calling Vargas a “fat clown” and rudely challenging his masculinity.

“People are upset with that,” Orue said, “so they hope that he loses.”

One of six children born to a baker and a housewife, Mayorga, 34, grew up under trying circumstances on the dirt streets of war-torn Managua. An uncontrollable youth, he was steered into boxing by a teacher at a military school and quickly proved proficient, winning 103 amateur bouts and going 27-6-1 as a pro, scoring 22 knockouts and winning world titles as a welterweight and light-middleweight.

But he also became a notorious provocateur and trash talker, addressing the media while smoking and drinking beer, bringing pizza to weigh-ins with calorie-conscious opponents and posing for a magazine cover with a cigarette in his mouth.

The first pre-fight news conference for Friday’s fight against Vargas ended in a brawl.

“He’s a jackass,” said Vargas, who refused to talk with Mayorga during a recent conference call. “He doesn’t think about what he says. And he’s stupid.”

Mayorga also has struggled -- unsuccessfully -- to keep his taunting, reckless street-fighter style from spilling over into his life outside the ring. A father of four, he separated from his wife three years ago. He has been charged with rape and arrested for assaulting a man with his fists and a pistol, has tested positive for a banned substance and was jailed twice on fraud charges.

And that has led to a growing division among the people who once made up his fan base.

“There are people that are still behind him. They see him as an athlete that has risen out of poverty to reach this level,” Rodriguez said. “And they say he talks without hypocrisy and says what other people are afraid to say. He doesn’t act like a diplomat or a politician.

“But there are other people who are ashamed of the way he talks and the way he behaves.”

Such as three-time world champion Alexis Arguello, a revered figure in Nicaragua who has repeatedly criticized Mayorga’s hubris -- shots the boxer answered by saying he would marry Arguello’s daughter, Dora Maria.

When Mayorga’s last fight, which was televised nationally in Nicaragua, ended in victory for Oscar De La Hoya, revelers set off fireworks and bottle rockets in Managua.

There is another side to Mayorga, however -- one his handlers prefer to downplay because the image of the eccentric brawler is better box office.

Mayorga once spent $40,000 to bring electricity to the poor Managua barrio where his mother lives, for example. And he also has reached into his pocket to help neighbors pay bills, go to college and get medical treatment.

Nor is he the only prominent Nicaraguan boxer who has battled demons outside the ring. In 1997, two-time world champion Rosendo Alvarez -- now an influential promoter and manager in Nicaragua -- showed up at a public event drunk before taking off his clothes and starting a fight.

And after hanging up his gloves, even the popular Arguello, a boxing Hall of Fame member, succumbed to drug and alcohol addictions that had him planning his suicide and trying to kill his girlfriend.

Both, however, remain popular among Nicaraguans -- Arguello was even elected vice mayor of Managua -- but opinion is sharply divided over Mayorga.

“He’s the kind of fighter people either love or hate. There’s no one in the middle,” said German Cash, who has portraits of Arguello, Alvarez and Mayorga prominently displayed in his Nicaraguan restaurant, El Asador, a few blocks from Staples Center. “That’s why his fights sell. Some people pay to see him win, some people pay to see him lose.

“He’s controversial.”

Just not with Cash. The Mayorga portrait is the only of the three that is framed, and the boxer, Cash said, is a frequent customer who has promised to stop by after the fight.

About a mile up Venice Boulevard, in the heart of L.A.’s Central American community, Marvin Rostran is selling Mayorga posters and video cassettes of classic Arguello bouts out of his Nicaraguan restaurant, El Camacho’s. Like Cash, Rostran will show Friday’s fight on a wide-screen TV and Mayorga has promised to come by his restaurant too, where he’ll sign posters for customers -- not all of whom will be cheering him.

“When he fought the last time against De La Hoya, it was like Mexico in here,” Rostran said. “It was kind of weird being in a Nicaraguan restaurant and [everybody] cheering for De La Hoya.”

It could be the same Friday.

“Most of my customers,” Rostran said, “think Vargas is going to win.”

Mayorga doesn’t take offense.

“I have to respect everybody’s decision to cheer for whoever they’d like,” he said. “I just say what I think I have to say at the moment. I say what I think is true.”

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com

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RICARDO MAYORGA VS. FERNANDO VARGAS

What: Super-middleweight fight

When: Friday, 7 p.m. (pay per view)

Where: Staples Center